Sound reproducing apparatus which utilizes data stored on a recording medium to make the apparatus more user friendly and a recording medium used in the apparatus

ABSTRACT

A karaoke reproducing apparatus is equipped a measure for easily checking whether a music piece selected by the user has correctly been accepted or not. The apparatus has a memory in which music title name information of each of the music pieces recorded on a recording medium has previously been stored. When one of the plurality of music pieces is selected by an operation, the music title name information of the selected music piece is soon displayed by characters. The apparatus also has memory means in which music piece classification information of each of the music pieces recorded on the recording medium has previously been stored. An item content selection command to designate the contents of at least one of a plurality of different items included in the music piece classification information is generated in accordance with an operation. The music piece corresponding to the contents of at least one item indicated by the item content selection command is searched for by using the information from the memory means.

This Application is a division of Ser. No. 08/249,837 filed May 26,1994.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a karaoke reproducing apparatus whichhas a recording medium on which karaoke playing sounds of a plurality ofmusic pieces have been recorded and which is used to reproduce theplaying sounds of selected one of the plurality of music pieces.

The invention further relates to a recording disc on which informationsuch as characters, figure, and the like have been recorded as an imageand to an information reproducing apparatus for reproducing therecording information from such a recording disc.

2. Description of Background Information

Karaoke reproducing apparatuses are generally designed that a musicpiece selection number (music piece code) which is predetermined foreach music piece is input by a key operation when the user selects adesired music piece from a plurality of karaoke music pieces. After themusic piece selection number has been input as mentioned above, when theplaying order of the desired music piece comes, the karaoke playingsound of the music piece corresponding to the music piece selectionnumber is generated from the karaoke reproducing apparatus.

In conventional karaoke reproducing apparatuses, some apparatuses aredevised to display the music piece selection number which has been inputby the key operation so as to allow the user to confirm whether or notthe key operation by the user has been correctly executed. However, whenthe key operation is performed by a user who has mistaken thecorrespondence between the desired music piece and the music pieceselection number, the user will not notice such a mistake when seeingonly the display of the music piece selection number. This will resultthat the desired music piece is not actually outputted from the karaokereproducing apparatus as a playing sound, after the lapse of a longwaiting time.

Furthermore, when selecting a music piece, the user cannot select themusic piece unless he knows at least a music title name or a singer nameof the music piece which he wants to sing.

In some conventional karaoke reproducing apparatuses, externalapparatuses such as illuminating apparatus, background video imageapparatus, and the like are controlled in correspondence to the karaokeplaying sound obtained by playing the recording medium. For instance, inthe case of the illuminating apparatus, color and illuminance of theillumination change in accordance with the karaoke playing music piece.In the case of the background video image apparatus, the backgroundvideo image of the word video image of the playing music piece which isdisplayed on the display corresponds to the contents of the playingmusic piece. Such external control information has previously beenstored in a memory in the karaoke reproducing apparatus every musicpiece. When a music piece is selected, the corresponding externalcontrol information is read out from the memory, thereby controlling theexternal apparatus.

In the conventional karaoke reproducing apparatus, however, in the caseof controlling the external apparatus in accordance with the karaokeplaying in a real-time manner, it is necessary to set the externalapparatus into an operative set state before playing every music piece.Due to this, since control set information of the external apparatus ofthe number as many as the number of music pieces which can be selectedmust be stored into the memory, there is a problem such that a capacityof the memory and costs increase. When a new karaoke music piece isadded, since control set information of the external apparatus of thenew music piece must be preliminarily stored into the memory, thetroublesome operation is necessary.

On the other hand, in the conventional karaoke reproducing apparatus,the external apparatuses such as illuminating apparatus, backgroundvideo image apparatus, and the like are controlled in a real-time mannerin correspondence to the karaoke playing sound obtained by the playingof the recording medium. In this case, real-time data has been recordedtogether with the playing sound on the recording medium. When playing,the real-time data is read out from the recording medium together withthe playing sound. In accordance with the read-out real-time data, forexample, in the case of the illuminating apparatus, the color andilluminance of the illumination change, and in the case of thebackground video image apparatus, the background video image of the wordvideo image of the playing music piece which is displayed on the displaycorresponds to the contents of the playing music piece.

In such a conventional karaoke reproducing apparatus which controls theexternal apparatus in accordance with the karaoke playing in a real-timemanner, however, the real-time data must be provided for each externalapparatus to be controlled. Namely, as for the real-time data recordedon the recording medium, there is a fixed relationship between thereal-time data and the external apparatus which is to be controlled bythe data, as in the case of a real-time data that is solely used forcontrolling the illuminating apparatus. There is no freedom of degreesuch that an arbitrary external apparatus is connected or the controlcontents are changed in accordance with the external apparatus which isconnected.

In the karaoke system, further, there is known a system in which inaddition to the operation such that a karaoke music piece and a voicesound of a singer are synthesized and outputted as an audio sound, avideo image corresponding to the atmosphere of the karaoke music pieceand the words information of the music piece are displayed, therebysupporting the singer.

In such a karaoke system, recording information is read out from arecording disc such as LD (Laser Disc), CD (Compact Disc), or the like,on which audio signals, video signals, and character signals to formwords corresponding to karaoke music pieces have been recorded, thereproduction audio signal, reproduction video image signal, andreproduction character signal are obtained, and a desired signal processis executed to each of those reproduction signals, thereby executing theacoustic generation and the display as mentioned above. For instance,the reproduction audio signal and the voice signal obtained from thesinger are synthesized and the synthetic signal is outputted as an audiosound by a speaker. The reproduction character signal and thereproduction video image signal are synthesized and the synthetic signalis displayed on the display synchronously with the acoustic outputtiming of the reproduction audio signal. With such a construction, thevideo image and words information are displayed on the display inaccordance with the progress of the karaoke music piece.

In this instance, as a method of converting characters to form the wordsinto a data signal as mentioned above, a method of using character fontdata and a method of recognizing a shape of character as one imagecharacter and using the image data which expresses the shape ofcharacter by a set of dots of a minimum unit are considered. In theabove karaoke system, the latter method using the image data is used inorder to reduce the costs of the apparatus.

When the size of character (hereinafter, generically referred to as acharacter) to be displayed on the display is large, therefore, since thenumber of dots to form one character also increase, a data amount of theimage data signal which is recorded on the recording disc alsoincreases. When the data amount increases as mentioned above, further,it takes a time to read the data from the recording disc, so that thereis a problem such that there occurs a case where the synchronizationwith the above reproduction audio signal cannot be preferably performed.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is the first object of the present invention to provide a karaokereproducing apparatus which can easily discriminate whether a musicpiece selected by the user could be correctly accepted or not.

The second object of the invention is to provide a karaoke reproducingapparatus which can select a desired music piece even if the userdoesn't know a music title name, a singer name, or the like of a musicpiece which the user wants to sing or can select a music piece having adesired function.

The third object of the invention is to provide a karaoke reproducingapparatus which can properly control an external apparatus after thestart of the karaoke playing even if a memory of a large capacity forstoring control set information of the external apparatus is notprovided in the apparatus.

The fourth object of the invention is to provide a karaoke reproducingapparatus which can control an arbitrary external apparatus and canchange the control contents of the external apparatus.

The fifth object of the invention is to provide a recording disc whichcan reduce a data amount of character/figure information to be recordedon a recording disc and to provide a recording information reproducingapparatus.

According to the first feature of the invention, there is provided akaraoke reproducing apparatus comprising: a recording medium on which atleast karaoke playing sounds of a plurality of music pieces have beenrecorded; means for generating a selection music piece instructionindicating one of a plurality of music pieces in accordance with anoperation; and playing means for playing the recording medium withrespect to the one music piece corresponding to the selection musicpiece instruction, wherein the apparatus includes a memory in whichmusic title name information of each of the music pieces recorded on therecording medium has previously been stored, reading means for readingout the music title name information corresponding to the selectionmusic piece instruction from the memory when the selection music pieceinstruction is generated, and displaying means for displaying theread-out music title name information by characters.

In the karaoke reproducing apparatus according to the first feature ofthe invention, when one music piece is selected from a plurality ofmusic pieces by the operation, the music title name information of theselected music piece is immediately displayed by characters.

According to the second feature of the invention, there is provided akaraoke reproducing apparatus which has a recording medium on which atleast karaoke playing sounds of a plurality of music pieces have beenrecorded and reproduce the playing sound of the selected music piece inthe plurality of music pieces by playing the recording medium, whereinthe apparatus comprises: memory means in which music piececlassification information of each of music pieces recorded on therecording medium has previously been stored; instructing means forgenerating an item content selecting instruction to designate thecontents of at least one of a plurality of different items included inthe music piece classification information in accordance with anoperation; and searching means for searching for the music piececorresponding to the contents of at least the one item indicated by theitem content selecting instruction from the memory means.

According to the second feature of the invention, there is provided akaraoke reproducing apparatus having memory means in which music piececlassification information of each of the music pieces recorded on arecording medium has previously been stored, an item content selectinginstruction to designate the contents of at least one of a plurality ofdifferent items included in the music piece classification informationis generated in accordance with an operation, and the music piececorresponding to the contents of at least the one item indicated by theitem content selecting instruction is searched for through the memorymeans.

According to the third feature of the invention, there is provided akaraoke reproducing apparatus which can reproduce karaoke playing soundsand can also simultaneously generate real-time data for controlling anexternal apparatus, wherein the apparatus comprises: a recording mediumon which at least karaoke playing sounds of a plurality of music piecesand control set information of the external apparatus corresponding toeach of music pieces have been recorded; means for generating aselection music piece instruction indicating one of the plurality ofmusic pieces in accordance with an operation, playing means for playingthe recording medium with respect to the one music piece according tothe selection music piece instruction; and means for reading out thecontrol set information corresponding to the selection music pieceinstruction from the recording medium before the start of the playing bythe playing means and for setting the external apparatus into a setstate corresponding to the control set information which has been readout.

In the karaoke reproducing apparatus according to the third feature ofthe invention, when one music piece is selected from a plurality ofmusic pieces by the operation, the control set information of theselected music piece is read out from the recording medium and theexternal apparatus is set into the set state corresponding to thecontrol set information and, after that, the playing of the selectedmusic piece is started.

According to the fourth feature of the invention, there is provided akaraoke reproducing apparatus which can reproduce a karaoke playingsound and can also simultaneously control an external apparatus, whereinthe apparatus comprises: a recording medium on which at least karaokeplaying sounds of a plurality of music pieces and real-time data whichcorresponds to each of music pieces and changes in accordance with themusic piece playing have been recorded; means for generating a selectionmusic piece instruction indicating one of a plurality of music pieces inaccordance with an operation; playing means for playing the recordingmedium with respect to the one music piece corresponding to theselection music piece instruction and for simultaneously outputting thereal-time data; and converting means for converting the real-time dataoutputted from the playing means and for supplying the converted data tothe external apparatus.

In the karaoke reproducing apparatus according to the fourth feature ofthe invention, when one music piece is selected from a plurality ofmusic pieces by the operation, the recording medium is played withrespect to the selected music piece, the real-time data is obtainedsimultaneously with the reproduction of the karaoke playing sound, andthe real-time data is converted so as to be adapted to the externalapparatus and is supplied to the external apparatus.

According to the fifth feature of the invention, there is provided arecording disc on which character/figure information has been recordedas a character signal indicative of the image data, wherein therecording disc comprises: a character data section in which thecharacter signal has been recorded; and a header section which isprovided at a head position of the character data section and in whichan enlargement ratio designation signal to designate an enlargementratio on a display based on the character signal has been recorded.

According to the fifth feature of the invention, there is provided arecording information reproducing apparatus for reproducing recordinginformation from a recording disc on which a character signal indicatingcharacter/figure information and an enlargement ratio designation signalto designate an enlargement ratio on the display based on the charactersignal have been recorded, wherein the apparatus comprises: readingmeans for reading out the character signal and the enlargement ratiodesignation signal from the recording disc, respectively; enlargementoperating means for performing an enlargement arithmetical operation tothe character signal at the enlargement ratio indicated by theenlargement ratio designation signal, thereby obtaining an enlargementcharacter signal; and displaying means for displaying on the basis ofthe enlargement character signal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a construction of an information area of adisc;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a construction of a karaoke informationfile;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the installing operation;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the music piece selecting operation;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a selection music piece list table;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a recording permission/inhibition datatable;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the disc playing operation;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an example of another installingoperation;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the music title name searching operation;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a continuing portion of the music titlename searching operation in FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a continuing portion of the music titlename searching operation in FIG. 10;

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a display picture plane of classificationitems of music piece classification information;

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing the contents and selection numbers of amain theme image of music pieces;

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing the contents and selection numbers of musicpiece themes;

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing the contents and selection numbers ofsituations of music pieces;

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing the contents and selection numbers ofspecial genre of music pieces;

FIG. 18 is a flowchart showing another example of the music title namesearching operation;

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing the contents and selection numbers ofcombination of a plurality of items;

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing the contents and selection numbersaccording to a classification different from the music piececlassification information regarding music pieces;

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing an example of control device information;

FIG. 22 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 23 is a flowchart showing the disc playing operation;

FIG. 24 is a flowchart showing a continuing portion of the disc playingoperation in FIG. 23;

FIG. 25 is a flowchart showing a continuing portion of the disc playingoperation in FIG. 24;

FIG. 26 is a diagram showing a file construction of each chapter unit ofa real-time file area;

FIG. 27 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 28 is a flowchart showing the operation of an external apparatuscontrol interface;

FIG. 29 is a diagram showing a construction of a karaoke apparatus towhich a recording information reproducing apparatus according to theinvention is applied;

FIG. 30 is a diagram showing a format of an image data signal of arecording disc according to the invention;

FIGS. 31 and 32 are diagrams showing examples of an image display by abasic character signal;

FIG. 33 is a diagram showing a subroutine flow of a characterenlargement control which is executed by the recording informationreproducing apparatus according to the invention;

FIGS. 34 to 36 are diagrams for explaining the enlarging operation ofcharacters; and

FIGS. 37 to 39 are diagrams for explaining the enlarging operation ofcharacters.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

An embodiment of the invention will now be described in detailhereinbelow with reference to the drawings.

In a karaoke reproducing apparatus shown in FIG. 1, a disc enclosingsection 2, a disc conveying section 3, and a player section 4 areprovided in an automatic changer 1. A plurality of discs 5 are enclosedin the disc enclosing section 2. When a disc is played, one of theplurality of discs 5 is conveyed onto a turntable (not shown) of theplayer section 4 by the conveying section 3. When the playing isfinished, the disc on the turntable is returned to a position where itwas in the disc enclosing section 2 by the conveying section 3. Theplayer section 4 plays the disc on the turntable and outputs read data.The disc conveying section 3 and player section 4 operate in accordancewith commands from a system controller 7, which will be explainedhereinbelow.

A data separating circuit 6 is connected to a data output of the playersection 4. The data separating circuit 6 separates the data outputtedfrom the player section 4 into various kinds of data such as compressedimage data, compressed audio data, control data, information data, andthe like and outputs those data from individual output terminals. Inaddition to the foregoing system controller 7, an audio decoder 8 and avideo decoder 9 are connected to the data separating circuit 6. The dataseparating circuit 6 has a terminal to connect an external apparatus 10.The external apparatus 10 is a controller for karaoke presentations suchas illumination, video image, telop, and the like.

The audio decoder 8 decodes the separated compressed audio data andreconstructs as non-compressed audio data such as PCM digital data orthe like. Since audio data of a plurality of channels has beencompressed in the compressed audio data, the audio data of the channeldesignated in accordance with a signal from the system controller 7 isreconstructed. The audio data outputted from the audio decoder 8 issupplied to a D/A converter 11 and converted into the analog audiosignal. The analog audio signal is supplied to a speaker 19 through anamplifier 18.

The video decoder 9 decodes the separated compressed image data andreconstructs as non-compressed image data. The image data outputted fromthe video decoder 9 is supplied to a D/A converter 12 and converted intothe analog moving image video signal. The moving image video signal isdirectly outputted as a through output and is also supplied to an imagesynthesizer 21.

The system controller 7 comprises a microcomputer and receives theseparated information data. The information data is stored into an RAM(random access memory) 13 and is also selectively read out from the RAM13. The read-out information data is processed in the system controller7 or is supplied to a display character control circuit 20. The displaycharacter control circuit 20 has a character generator and a V-RAM andproduces the display character data according to the information dataand writes into the V-RAM. The control circuit 20 also reads out thedisplay character data from the V-RAM synchronously with a sync signalof the above moving image video signal and converts it into thecharacter video image signal and supplies to the image synthesizer 21.The character video image signal is synthesized to the moving imagevideo signal from the D/A converter 12 by the image synthesizer 21.

The operating section 15, a recording apparatus 16, and a printer 17 areconnected to the system controller 7. The operating section 15 has notonly a keyboard for designating a playing music piece but also areceiving section (not shown) for receiving the designation of theplaying music piece from a remote control transmitter 23. The recordingapparatus 16 is used to record the playing sound and singing sound ofkaraoke onto a recordable compact disc (not shown) such as a CD-R or thelike. The audio signal comprising the playing sound and singing sound issupplied from the amplifier 18 to the recording apparatus 16. Theprinter 17 is used to print recording music piece information such asmusic title names or the like to a label which is designed so as to beadhered to a compact disc.

The recording contents of the disc 5 which is played by the playersection 4 will now be described. All information has been recorded asdigital signals on the disc 5. As shown in FIG. 2, each informationrecording area of the disc 5 has a non-real-time file area and areal-time file area. An access information file such as a TOC or thelike and a karaoke information file comprising the music title names orthe like have been recorded in the non-real-time file area. N (N is aninteger and corresponds to the number of music pieces) real-time fileshave been recorded in the real-time file area on the basis of, forexample, MPEG (Moving Picture Expert Group) standard. Each real-timefile is called a chapter unit. One chapter corresponds to one musicpiece. The real-time file of one chapter comprises: the compressed imagedata and compressed audio data of one music piece; and real-time dataother than the image and audio sound. Those data are time-divisionmultiplexed and recorded in the file.

The access information file comprises information indicative of theposition and time duration in the disc of each chapter and the like. Byreferring to such information, an arbitrary chapter can be accessed. Thekaraoke information file comprises various kinds of informationregarding the discs and music pieces. FIG. 3 shows a structure of thekaraoke information file. The karaoke information file comprises discrelated information and one or more chapter information. One chapterinformation is the related information of one chapter, namely, musicpiece. The number of chapter information coincides with the number ofmusic pieces. The disc related information is the information regardingthe whole disc and, for example, the information such as disc contents,identification of the disc itself, the number of music pieces recordedon the disc, and the like.

Each chapter information includes a chapter information header, commoninformation in the chapter (also refers to as intrachapter commoninformation), information per telop channel, and information perlanguage. The chapter information header comprises ID information,information indicative of the contents, and the like of the chapterinformation. The intrachapter common information comprises: (1) anationality of the music piece; (2) year, month, and day of thepublication of the music piece; (3) a length of music piece; (4) acopyright code; (5) singer classification; (6) a genre of music piece;(7) a main theme image of music piece and a theme of music piece; (8) asituation of music piece; (9) a special genre of music piece; (10) atempo of music piece; (11) a location image of music piece; (12)difficulty of music piece; (13) a multiaudio mode; (14) a backgroundvideo image; (15) control apparatus information; (16) a DSP mode; andthe like.

The information per telop channel is the information regarding thecharacter information (telop) corresponding to the chapter. A pluralityof character information series (telop channels) can be allocated to onechapter. For example, telops of a plurality of different languages whichcan be selected can be added to one chapter. The information per telopchannel includes (1) the number of channels of the telop, (2) telopchannel number, (3) a telop language, and (4) a character format oftelop. A set of information of (2) telop channel number, (3) teloplanguage, and (4) a character format of telop corresponds to one telopchannel and as many sets of information as the number of telop channelsare recorded.

The information per language is the information which depends on thelanguage in the information about the chapter and comprises thefollowing information: (1) the number of information per language; (2) alanguage code; (3) a description code system; (4) a size of informationper language; (5) a music title name; (6) reading of the music titlename; (7) a name of singer; (8) reading of the name of singer; (9) aname of songwriter; (10) reading of the name of songwriter; (11) a nameof composer; (12) reading of the name of composer; (13) the firstphrase; (14) reading of the first phrase; (15) location data; and thelike. A set of information of (2) a language code to (15) location datacorresponds to one language and as many sets of information as thenumber of information per language are recorded.

The operation of the above karaoke reproducing apparatus will now bedescribed.

In the case of newly enclosing a disc into the disc enclosing section 2of the automatic changer 1, the installing operation is first executed.In the installing operation, when the new disc is enclosed into the discenclosing section 2 as shown in FIG. 4 and the system controller 7detects such a state (step S1), the system controller 7 generates a discset command to the disc conveying section 3 so as to load the disc ontothe turntable of the player section 4 (step S2). When the disc conveyingsection 3 finishes to load the disc onto the turntable of the playersection 4, information indicative of such a loading completion issupplied to the system controller 7 as a loading end signal. When thesystem controller 7, accordingly, obtains the loading end signal (stepS3), the system controller 7 instructs the player section 4 to rotatethe disc (step S4) and instructs to read the data (step S5). The playersection 4 rotates the disc together with the turntable. After arotational speed of the disc reached a predetermined speed, the data isread out from the non-real-time file area of the disc and is outputted.

The read-out data is supplied to the system controller 7 through thedata separating circuit 6 and is once stored into a buffer memory (notshown) in the system controller 7. The system controller 7 sequentiallywrites the supplied data into the external RAM 13 (step S6) anddiscriminates whether the reading of the data by the player section 4has been finished or not (step S7). For example, the data supplied bythe execution of step S6 is written into the RAM 13 until a bitindicative of the end of data supply is supplied and the end of readingof the data is known. When the reading of the data is finished, anoperation stop command is generated to the player section 4 (step S8)and a disc return command is generated to the disc conveying section 3(step S9). The player section 4, therefore, stops the rotation of theturntable. After that, the disc conveying section 3 conveys the disc onthe turntable to a predetermined enclosing position of the disc in thedisc enclosing section 2 and encloses therein. After completion of theexecution of step S9, the system controller 7 discriminates whether anyother new disc has been enclosed or not (step S10). When another newdisc is enclosed into the disc enclosing section 2, the processingroutine advances to step S2. If no new disc is enclosed any more, theinstalling operation is finished.

All of the data of the access information file and the karaokeinformation file mentioned above can be also written as data to bewritten into the RAM 13. However, it is also possible to write only themusic piece data such as at least only the disc number that is peculiarto the disc, address indicative of the enclosing position in the discenclosing section 2 of the disc, location of each music piece in thedisc, music title name, name of singer, name of songwriter, name ofcomposer, length of music piece, copyright code, genre of music piece,tempo of music piece, difficulty of music piece, multiaudio mode, andthe like.

The new disc can be enclosed by an input from the operating section 15by the user. It is also possible to construct in a manner such that asensor to detect the presence or absence of the disc is provided at eachenclosing position in the disc enclosing section 2, an area to store thedetection result is provided in the RAM 13, the detection outputs of allof the sensors are compared with the contents stored in the RAM 13 everyinstalling operation, a discrimination about whether the new disc hasbeen enclosed or not is made, and the result of the discrimination iswritten into the RAM 13.

In the above embodiment, the music piece data such as music title nameand the like has been obtained when installing the disc on which theimage data and the audio data of the music pieces have been recordedtogether with the music piece data. The music piece data, however, canbe also derived from an exclusive-use disc on which only the music piecedata such as music title name and the like has been recorded at the timeof installing of the disc. Or, it is also possible to construct in amanner such that the music piece data of a plurality of discs on whichthe image data and audio data have been recorded is recorded onto one ofthose plurality of discs and those music piece data is derived wheninstalling such one disc.

After the installing operation has been performed as mentioned above,the music piece selected by the user can be karaoke reproduced. In themusic piece selecting operation, the user first inputs the music pieceselection number by operating proper numerical keys or alphabetical keysof the operating section 15 or remote control transmitter 23. The musicpiece selection number is constructed by a plurality of digits anddenotes the number to designate a desired disc and a desired one ofmusic pieces recorded in the disc. When the key operation is performed,the music piece selection number is held in a buffer (not shown) in theoperating section 15. As shown in FIG. 5, the system controller 7discriminates whether a music piece selection key (not shown) of theoperating section 15 has been operated at a predetermined timing or byan interrupting operation or not (step S11). When the music pieceselection key is operated, the music piece selection number is read outfrom the above buffer and is written into a music piece selection listtable in the RAM 13 (step S12). The music piece selection list table isformed in the RAM 13 and music piece selection numbers and recordingflags (which will be explained later) are written in accordance with theplaying order as shown in FIG. 6. When the playing is finished, theorder is advanced. The music piece name corresponding to the read musicpiece selection number is read out as information data from the RAM 13(step S13). The read-out data is supplied to the display charactercontrol circuit 20 (step S14). The display character control circuit 20produces the display character data indicative of the music title nameand writes into a predetermined position in the V-RAM. After the displaycharacter data has been read out from the V-RAM and converted into thecharacter video image signal, it is supplied to the image synthesizer21. The character video image signal is outputted from the imagesynthesizer 21 in place of the moving image video signal from the D/Aconverter 12 in the case of the signal indicative of a predeterminedcolor, so that it is synthesized to the moving image video signal. Themusic title name is, therefore, displayed as a character video image bythe display 22 and it is confirmed that the music piece selected by thekey operation has been accepted.

After completion of the execution in step S14, the system controller 7reads out the copyright code corresponding to the read music pieceselection number from the RAM 13 (step S15). Since the copyright codeexists in the data which has been read out from the disc and written inthe RAM 13 at the time of the installing operation, the copyright codecan be read out from the RAM 13. The copyright code is a code indicativeof the owner of the copyright of the music piece. On the basis of thecopyright code which has been read out, a check is made to see if theselected music piece is a recordable music piece or not (step S16). Asshown in FIG. 7, the copyright code, copyright owner, and informationindicating whether the recording of the music piece is permitted orinhibited have previously been written as a recordingpermission/inhibition data table in an ROM (read only memory) 14provided in the outside of the system controller 7. As for thepermission and inhibition of the recording, "1" indicates that therecording is permitted and "0" indicates that the recording isinhibited. A check is, therefore, made to see if the selected musicpiece is a music piece which can be recorded or not from the recordingpermission/inhibition data table. If the recording can be performed, amessage indicating that the recording can be performed is displayed(step S17). If the recording cannot be performed, a message indicatingthat the recording cannot be executed is displayed (step S18). Suchmessages can be displayed by the display 22 or can be also displayed bya display (not shown) which is provided for the apparatus and in orderto display whether the recording is permitted or inhibited. In the caseof displaying the message by the display 22, display character dataindicating whether the recording can be performed or is inhibited isproduced by the display character control circuit 20 in accordance witha command from the system controller 7 and is written into the V-RAM.

After completion of the execution in step S17 because the recording canbe performed, the system controller 7 judges whether there is arecording reservation or not (step S19) by checking whether a recordingreservation key of the operating section 15 or the remote controltransmitter 23 has been operated or not. When there is a recordingreservation, the recording flag in the music piece selection list tableis set (step S20). Since "0" indicative of the non-recording haspreviously been written as an initial value of the recording flag in themusic piece selection list table, when the recording reservation key isoperated, the recording flag is set into "1" indicative of the recordingin correspondence to the music piece selection number.

The disc playing operation will now be described. As shown in FIG. 8,when the start of the playing is first instructed by a key operation ofthe operating section 15 (step S21), the system controller 7sequentially reads out the music piece selection numbers and recordingflags in accordance with the playing order from the first order in themusic piece selection list table formed in the RAM 13 (step S22). Thedisc address, music piece number and its location in the disccorresponding to the read-out music piece selection number are read outfrom the RAM 13 (step S23). A disc set command is generated to the discconveying section 3 in order to load the disc in the read-out discaddress onto the turntable of the player section 4 (step S24). When thedisc conveying section 3 finishes to load the disc onto the turntable ofthe player section 4, information indicative of such a loadingcompletion is supplied as loading end signal to the system controller 7.When obtaining the loading end signal (step S25), therefore, the systemcontroller 7 instructs the rotation of the disc to the player section 4(step S26). A check is made to see if the disc playing can be started ornot (step S27). For instance, in the case where the playing is inhibitedby a key operation of the operating section 15, the disc playing is notstarted. In the case where the disc playing can be started, the discplaying is instructed from the track of the read-out music piece number(step S28). The player section 4, accordingly, starts to play the musicpiece designated by the music piece selection number and the reproducedvideo image signal and audio signal are supplied to the display 22 andthe speaker 19. Whether there is a recording reservation or not isdiscriminated from the recording flag which has been read out (stepS29). When the recording flag is set to "1", a recording start commandis generated to the recording apparatus 16 (step S30). Since the audiosignal including the singing sound is supplied from the amplifier 18 tothe recording apparatus 16, it is recorded to a compact disc in responseto the recording start command.

After step S30 has been executed, the system controller 7 reads out therecording music piece information corresponding to the music pieceselection number which has been read out in step S22 from the RAM 13(step S31). The recording music piece information includes at least themusic title name, songwriter name, and composer name. Information suchas singer name, recording day and time, location, and the like can bealso added to the recording music piece information. After thoserecording music piece information has been read out, it is supplied tothe printer 17 (step S32). The printer 17 prints the recording musicpiece information to a label which is designed so as to be adhered tothe compact disc. By adhering the label to the label surface of thecompact disc recorded, it becomes the record about the recorded musicpiece. It will be obviously understood that the recording music pieceinformation can be also directly printed to the label surface of thecompact disc instead of the label.

After step S32 has been executed, the system controller 7 judges whetherthe playing of the selected music piece has been finished or not (stepS33) by checking the time information in the control data which issupplied from the data separating circuit 6 by the playing of the disc.After completion of the playing of the selected music piece, a playingstop command is generated to the player section 4 (step S34) and a discreturn command is generated to the disc conveying section 3 (step S35).The player section 4, therefore, stops the disc playing operation. Afterthe rotation of the turntable has been stopped, the disc conveyingsection 3 conveys the disc on the turntable to a enclosing positionwhere the disc was in the disc enclosing section 2 and encloses the disctherein. After the disc return command has been generated, the systemcontroller 7 advances the music piece order in the selection music piecelist table by one music piece (step S36). A check is made to see if themusic piece selection number has been recorded at the first position inthe selection music piece list table or not (step S37). If the musicpiece selection number has been recorded, the processing routine isreturned to step S22 and the above operation is repeated. On the otherhand, when no music piece selection number is recorded, the playingoperation is finished.

FIG. 9 shows another procedure of the installing operation. In theinstalling operation of FIG. 9 which relates to a case where in additionto the copyright code, the information such as copyright owner,recording permission/inhibition information, and date of registration ofthe recording permission/inhibition information is recorded on the disc.A recording permission/inhibition data table shown in FIG. 7 is formedin the RAM 13 instead of the ROM 14. That is, as shown in FIG. 9, stepsS1 to S7 are similar to the installing operation shown in FIG. 4 and theread-out data is written into the RAM 13 through the system controller7. In the writing operation, the copyright owner and the recordingpermission/inhibition data are not written into the recordingpermission/inhibition data table but are merely written into RAM 13 asdata of each disc or music piece. After completion of the reading of thedata, a check is made to see if the recording permission/inhibitioninformation registration date which has been read out from the disc isthe newest date or not (step S41). If the recordingpermission/inhibition information registration date is not later thanthe latest registration date stored in the RAM 13, step S8 follows andthe operation of the player section 4 is stopped. On the other hand,when the recording permission/inhibition information registration dateis later than the latest registration date, the recordingpermission/inhibition data table is updated by the various informationof the copyright owner and the recording permission/inhibition whichwere read out (step S42). Further, the updating registration date isupdated by the read-out recording permission/inhibition informationregistration date (step S43). After step S43 has been executed, step S8follows. Steps S8 to S10 are similar to the installing operation shownin FIG. 4.

It is also possible to construct in a manner such that the serviceperson for maintenance, inspection, and the like of the karaokereproducing apparatus can change the copyright owner and recordingpermission/inhibition data of the recording permission/inhibition datatable by a special key operation of the operating section 15.

It will be obviously understood that the recording medium on which atleast karaoke playing sounds of a plurality of music pieces have beenrecorded is not limited to the disc but another recording medium such asa tape or the like can be also used.

In the karaoke reproducing apparatus according to the first feature ofthe present invention as mentioned above, the memory in which the musictitle name information of each of the music pieces recorded on therecording medium has previously been stored is provided and, when one ofthe plurality of music pieces is selected by the operation, the musictitle name information of the selected music piece can be immediatelydisplayed by characters. The user who performed the music pieceselecting operation, consequently, can soon confirm whether a desiredmusic piece has correctly been accepted to the apparatus or not at theoperation time point. Particularly, the above construction is effectivebecause it is possible to know that the apparatus has been correctlyremote controlled in the case where the music piece selecting operationhad been executed by using the remote control transmitter.

The second embodiment of the invention will now be described. Theembodiment also has the construction and operation shown and describedin FIGS. 1 to 8 and their descriptions are omitted here. In the case ofthe second embodiment, the data supplied to the system controller 7 iswritten into the RAM 13 and a data table is formed in step S6 shown inFIG. 4. As data which is written into the RAM 13, all of the data of theforegoing access information file and karaoke information file can beused. In correspondence to the music piece code of each music piece, itis also possible to write only the music piece data such as at leastdisc number that is peculiar to the disc, address indicative of thestoring position in the disc enclosing section 2 of the disc, locationin the disc of the music piece, music title name, singer name,songwriter name, composer name, length of music piece, copyright code,genre of music piece, main theme image of music piece, music piecetheme, situation of music piece, special genre of music piece, and thelike.

In the second embodiment, in the case where the user cannot know thename of the music title which he wants to sing or where he wants to singthe music piece according to his feeling or an atmosphere or the like,the music piece selecting operation is not executed but a search key(not shown) of the operating section 15 is operated. When such a searchkey is operated, the system controller 7 starts the music title namesearching operation.

In the music title name searching operation, as shown in FIGS. 10 to 12,the system controller 7 first instructs the display character controlcircuit 20 to display a classification item table of the music piececlassification information which is used for search (step S141). In theexample, the classification items of the music piece classificationinformation include: a main theme image, a music piece theme of themusic piece, situation of the music piece, and special genre of themusic piece included in the intrachapter common information. Bysupplying a list table of those classification items as data to thedisplay character control circuit 20, a display command is executed.Such list table data can be also provided in a program for the musictitle name searching operation. The display character control circuit 20produces the display character data indicative of the classificationitem table and writes to a predetermined position in the V-RAM. Afterthe display character data has been read out from the V-RAM andconverted into the character video image signal, it is supplied to thedisplay 22 through the image synthesizer 21. Therefore, theclassification items of the music piece classification information aredisplayed on the screen of the display 22 as a character image as shownin, for example, FIG. 13. It is also possible to construct in a mannersuch that the image synthesizer 21 can switch between the display of thesynthesized image and the display of only the characters and only thecharacters are displayed in the searching operation.

The music piece classification information is such information asintrachapter common information which comprises the items in a widerange such as nationality and year and date of the music piece,permission or inhibition of the recording, feasibility of the duet, andfeasibility of the automatic control of an external apparatus such as anillumination or the like in addition to the information depending on thecontents of the words of music piece. Every item doesn't depend on thelanguage and the music piece can be allocated to either one of aplurality of selection branches existing in the items. A predeterminednumber of bits are allocated to each item, therefore, each selectionbranch in the item is encoded by the bit number and the code of theselection branch which has been allocated is added to each music piece.As mentioned above, the music piece classification information isdistinguished from the singer name, songwriter name, and composer namewhich are described by the characters in dependence on the language.

The system controller 7 judges whether there is a selection input fromthe operating section 15 or not (step S142). Such a selection input isperformed by numerical keys. When the numerical keys are operated, theselection number as one-byte data is held in the above buffer in theoperating section 15. When there is the selection number newly held inthe buffer, the system controller 7 reads the selection number (stepS143) and discriminates whether the read selection number is equal to"1" or not, namely, it indicates the main theme image and music piecetheme of the music piece or not (step S144). When the read selectionnumber doesn't indicate "1", a check is made to see if the selectionnumber is equal to "2", or not, namely, it indicates the situation ofmusic piece or not (step S145). When the read selection number is notequal to "2", a check is made to see if the read selection number isequal to "3" or not, namely, it indicates the special genre of musicpiece or not (step S146).

In step S144, when it is judged that the selection number indicative ofthe main theme image and music piece theme of the music piece has beenread, the display of a main theme image selection table of the musicpiece is instructed to the display character control circuit 20 (stepS147). The main theme image of the music piece comprises three selectionbranches of love, life, and others as shown in FIG. 14. By supplying alist table of those selection branches as data to the display charactercontrol circuit 20, the display command is executed. A main theme imageselection table of the music piece is displayed as a character videoimage on the display 22 by an operation similar to the display of theclassification item table of the music piece classification informationmentioned above.

After the display of the main theme image selection table of the musicpiece has been instructed, the system controller 7 judges whether thereis a selection input from the operating section 15 or not (step S148).When the key operation is performed, the selection number as one-bytedata is held in the buffer in the operating section 15. When there is aselection number which has been newly held in the buffer in theoperating section 15, the system controller 7 reads out the selectionnumber as a main theme image A of the music piece (step S149). Afterthat, the display of the music piece theme selection table according tothe main theme image A of the music piece is instructed to the displaycharacter control circuit 20 (step S150). When the main theme image A ofthe music piece relates to the code indicative of love, consequently,the first music piece theme selection table is displayed. When itindicates life, the second music piece theme selection table isdisplayed. When it indicates others, the third music piece themeselection table is displayed. FIG. 15 shows the contents of each musicpiece theme, namely, selection branches.

After the display of the music piece theme selection table has beeninstructed, the system controller 7 discriminates whether there is aselection input from the operating section 15 or not (step S151). Theselection input is similarly executed by numerical keys. When the keyoperation is executed, the selection number is held in the buffer in theoperating section 15. When there is a selection number which has beennewly held in the buffer, the system controller 7 reads the selectionnumber as a music piece theme B (step S152). Two-byte data AB,therefore, corresponding to the contents of the main theme image andmusic piece theme of the music piece is derived.

In the case where it is judged in step S145 that the selection numberindicative of the situation of music piece has been read, the display ofa situation selection table of the music piece is instructed to thedisplay character control circuit 20 (step S153). The situation of themusic piece comprises selection branches such as Christmas, birthday,valentine's day, and the like as shown in FIG. 16. By supplying a listtable of those selection branches as data to the display charactercontrol circuit 20, the display command is executed. The situationselection table of the music piece, therefore, is displayed as acharacter video image on the display 22. After the display of thesituation selection table of the music piece has been instructed, thesystem controller 7 judges whether there is a selection input from theoperating section 15 or not (step S154). When there is a selectionnumber which has been newly held in the buffer in the operating section15, the system controller 7 reads the selection number as a situation Cof the music piece (step S155).

When it is judged in step S146 that the selection number indicative ofthe special genre of the music piece has been read, the display of aspecial genre selection table of music pieces is instructed to thedisplay character control circuit 20 (step S156). As shown in FIG. 17,the special genre of music pieces comprises selection branches such asCM song, TV drama main theme song, other theme song, and the like. Bysupplying a list table of those selection branches as data to thedisplay character control circuit 20, the display command is executed.The special genre selection table of music pieces is displayed as acharacter video image onto the display 22. After the display of thespecial genre selection table of music pieces has been instructed, thesystem controller 7 checks whether there is a selection input from theoperating section 15 or not (step S157). When there is a selectionnumber which has been newly held in the buffer in the operating section15, the system controller 7 reads the selection number as a specialgenre D of the music piece (step S158).

After either one of steps S152, S155, and S158 has been executed, thesystem controller 7 instructs the display character control circuit 20to display the characters of "Is a classification item of another musicpiece classification information selected also?" (step S159). Inresponse to such an instruction, the above characters are displayed onthe display 22, so that the user responds by a key operation of theoperating section 15, for example, Y (yes) or N (no) of the alphabeticalkey. The system controller 7, accordingly, judges whether there is aninput from the operating section 15 or not (step S160). When there is aninput from the operating section 15, a check is made to see if the inputis affirmative or not (step S161). When the input from the operatingsection 15 is affirmative, the processing routine is returned to stepS141 and the above operation is repeated. On the other hand, when theinput is negative, the processing routine advances to the next stepS162. The numbers A to D corresponding to the classification items ofthe music piece classification information which are not selected areshown by the initial value "0" as they are.

In step S162, the system controller 7 searches for the music piecescorresponding to the main theme image A and the music piece theme B ofthe music piece and to the situation C and special genre D of the musicpiece from the RAM 13. That is, since the main theme image and the musicpiece theme of the music piece and the situation and special genre ofthe music piece have been encoded and written in the RAM 13 every musicpiece by the installing operation, they are sequentially read out inaccordance with a predetermined music piece order. The music pieces suchthat the main theme image and music piece theme of the music piece areequal to A and B and the situation of the music piece is equal to C andthe special genre of the music piece is equal to D are compared andsearched for. When there are music pieces in which those data coincidewith respect to all items, the codes of such music piece are stored intoa memory (not shown) in the system controller 7. The classificationitems in which the selection number is equal to 0 are ignored. Aftercompletion of the searching operation in step S162, a check is made tosee if the relevant music pieces exist or not (step S163). As a resultof the search, when no music piece code is stored in the systemcontroller 7, the display of the characters of "There is nocorresponding music piece." is instructed to the display charactercontrol circuit 20 (step S164). On the other hand, when at least onemusic piece code is stored in the system controller 7, the music titlenames corresponding to all of the music piece codes stored, namely, themusic title names of the corresponding music pieces are read out fromthe RAM 13 (step S165). Both of the read-out music title names and themusic piece codes are supplied as a pair data to the display charactercontrol circuit 20 (step S166). Therefore, the display character dataindicative of the music piece code and the music title name is producedin the display character control circuit 20 and written at apredetermined position in the V-RAM. The display character data is readout from the V-RAM and converted into the character video image signal.After that, the character video image signal is supplied to the display22 through the image synthesizer 21. At least one music piece code andits music title name obtained by the search are displayed on the display22 as a character video image. The display of each table for search andthe display of the music piece code and its music title name of theresult of the search can be also executed by another display differentfrom the display 22.

When the user operates a music piece selection key (not shown) of theoperating section 15 after the music title name searching operation hasbeen finished as mentioned above, the system controller 7 starts themusic piece selecting operation in a manner similar to the operationmentioned above. The user selects a desired music piece from the musictitle names displayed on the display 22 by using its music piece code asa music piece selection number. Or, when displaying, it is also possibleto allocate the number to each searching music piece and to select adesired music piece on the basis of such a number.

In the above music title name searching operation, although the userfinally selects a desired music piece from the music title namesdisplayed on the display 22, a desired music piece can be alsoautomatically selected on the karaoke reproducing apparatus side. Inthis case, as shown in FIG. 18, when corresponding music piece exists instep S163, and it is judged that even at least one music piece code hasbeen stored in the memory in the system controller 7, the systemcontroller 7 selects at random one of all of the music piece codesstored in the internal memory (step S171). The selected music piece codeis written as a music piece selection number into a selection musicpiece list table in the RAM 13 (step S172). After that, the processingroutine forcibly advances to step S113 for the above music pieceselecting operation. The music title name corresponding to the musicpiece selection number is read out as information data from the RAM 13.In step S114, further, the read-out data is supplied to the displaycharacter control circuit 20. The music title name as a result of theautomatic music piece selection is, consequently, displayed on thedisplay 22, so that the user can confirm the music piece to be sung.

As another method of searching by a combination of a plurality of itemsshown in the above embodiment, there is also a method such that aplurality of sets each comprising the contents selected from theselection branches of each of a plurality of items are prepared and theperson who wants to select a music piece selects a desired set. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 19, combinations of the contents which arefrequently selected are displayed as sets and the person who wants toselect desired music pieces selects a proper set by the number. Withthis method, the corresponding music pieces can be searched for by asmaller number of operating procedures.

As further another method of searching by a combination of a pluralityof items, there is a method such that selection branches by aclassification different from the information regarding the music piecesrecorded in the karaoke information file are presented and the contentsof the selected branch are searched for in correspondence to theinformation regarding the music pieces. For example, selection branchesas shown in FIG. 20 are presented and when "Wooing song before 1970s" isselected, the system controller 7 searches for the corresponding musicpiece by using "(2) Year, month, and day of publication of the musicpiece" and "Declaration of love (man--woman)" of "Love" in "(7) a maintheme image of music piece and a theme of music piece" in theintrachapter common information in the information regarding the musicpiece. By directly setting the request contents of the person who wantsto select the music piece into the selection branches, as stated above,the music piece which meets the requirements can be more easily searchedfor.

By using "(15) Control device information" of the intrachapter commoninformation, the music piece can be searched for by the function. FIG.21 relates to an example of "(15) Control device information" and showsthat one bit corresponds to one external apparatus and, when the valueof the bit is equal to "1", the external apparatus corresponding to thebit can be controlled. For example, when searching under a conditionsuch that the music piece in which the illumination control can beperformed is searched for, therefore, the system controller 7 searchesfor the music piece in which the bit 15 is equal to "1" and displays onthe display 22 through the display character control circuit 20. In thismanner, the person who wants to select a music piece can select adesired music piece from the music pieces in which the target functioncan be realized.

In the above example, the intrachapter common information has been usedas information that is used to search, however, other information suchas singer name, songwriter name, composer name, and the like can be alsoused solely or as a combination with the intrachapter common informationfor search.

By using "(4) Copyright code" of the intrachapter common information,the music pieces, which satisfy the condition such that the music piececan be recorded, can be searched for and it is possible to easily meetthe requirement of the user such that he wants to sing the recordablemusic piece.

By using "(5) Singer classification" of the intrachapter commoninformation, the music pieces which can satisfy the condition such thatthe music piece can be sung in duet can be searched for. The user whowants to sing in duet can easily select a desired music piece from theduet music pieces.

When the music piece has four audio channels, the contents of the twoaudio subchannels among four channels can be known with reference to"(13) Multiaudio mode" of the intrachapter common information, so thatthe music piece can be searched for on the basis of the contents of thesubchannels. For example, in the case where (karaokeaccompaniment)+(vocal of one of the duet) have been recorded in one ofthe audio subchannels and (karaoke accompaniment)+(vocal of another oneof the duet) have been recorded in the other channel, the user selectsthe reproduction of either one of the audio subchannels, so that he canperform the duet by the recorded vocal sound and the user. By using"(13) Multiaudio mode" as a classification item, the music piece whichsatisfies the condition such that the music piece can be sung in dueteven by one person can be easily searched for.

In the present invention, the recording medium on which at least thekaraoke playing sounds of a plurality of music pieces have been recordedis not limited to the disc but it will be obviously understood thatanother recording medium such as a tape or the like can be also used.

In the karaoke reproducing apparatus according to the second feature ofthe invention as mentioned above, the apparatus has the memory means inwhich the music piece classification information of each of the musicpieces recorded on the recording medium has previously been stored. Anitem content selection command to designate the contents of at least oneof a plurality of different items included in the music piececlassification information is generated in accordance with theoperation. The music piece corresponding to the contents of at least oneitem indicated by the item content selection command is searched forthrough the memory means. That is, in the case where the user doesn'tknow the music piece information such as music title name, singer name,or the like of the music piece which he wants to sing, or in the casewhere the user wants to sing the music piece according to the feeling oratmosphere in that moment, the user can search for a desired musicpiece. The user, therefore, can enjoy the karaoke in accordance with theresult of the search.

The third embodiment of the invention will now be described. In theembodiment, a karaoke reproducing apparatus has a construction shown inFIG. 22. The portions in a range from the automatic changer 1 to theremote control transmitter 23 are substantially the same as thecorresponding portions in the construction shown in FIG. 1 and theirdescriptions are omitted here. In the third embodiment, terminals toconnect external apparatuses are provided for the data separatingcircuit 6. In the apparatus, an illuminating apparatus 25, a backgroundvideo image apparatus 26 including a video camera and a recording mediumplaying apparatus, and an audio processing apparatus 27 comprising a DSP(Digital Signal Processor) are provided as external apparatuses and theyare apparatuses for karaoke presentation. The illuminating apparatus 25is used to control the illumination in what is called a karaoke room.The background video image apparatus 26 is used to display, for example,a video image according to the image, situation, location, or season ofthe music piece by the playing operation of the recording medium playingapparatus in addition to a photographing video image such as a singer orthe like using a video camera as a background video image of thecharacter information such as song words or the like which are displayedon the display 22. The background video image apparatus 26 generates abackground video image signal indicative of the background video image.The audio processing apparatus 27 is used to control a sound field ofthe karaoke sound or singing sound in the karaoke room and is arrangedin the audio reproducing system as will be explained later. Theilluminating apparatus 25, background video image apparatus 26, andaudio processing apparatus 27 are also connected to the systemcontroller 7.

In a manner similar to FIG. 1, the display character control circuit 20has a character generator and a V-RAM and produces the display characterdata according to information data and writes it into the V-RAM. Thecontrol circuit 20 reads out the display character data from the V-RAMsynchronously with a sync signal of the above moving image video signaland converts into the character video signal and supplies to the imagesynthesizer 21. The character video image signal is synthesized to themoving image video signal from the D/A converter 12 or the backgroundvideo image signal from the background video image apparatus 26 by theimage synthesizer 21.

The recording contents of the disc which is played by the player section4 in the embodiment are as shown in FIG. 2. The real-time data in thereal-time file is used to control the external apparatuses. Thereal-time data shows, for example, a climax degree of the music piece by16 levels and its start time and duration are shown by a time unit (forexample, on a frame unit basis). The real-time data can be also providedby the contents which differ every external apparatus which can beconnected.

An access information file has contents shown in FIG. 3 in a mannersimilar to the cases of the first and second embodiments. The karaokereproducing apparatus, further, executes the operations shown in FIGS. 4to 7.

As data which is written into the RAM 13 in step S6 in FIG. 4, theinformation of enclosing of a new disc can be obtained by the input fromthe operating section 15 by the user. It is also possible to constructin a manner such that a sensor to detect the presence or absence of thedisc is attached at each enclosing position of the disc enclosingsection 2, a region to store the results of the detection is provided inthe RAM 13, the detection outputs of all of the sensors are comparedwith the contents stored in the RAM 13 every installing operation tothereby discriminate whether the new disc has been enclosed or not, andthe results of the detection are written into the RAM 13.

The disc playing operation will now be described with reference to FIGS.23 to 25. The operations in steps S221 to S228 are substantially thesame as those in steps S21 to S28 shown in FIG. 8. After step S228, theplayer section 4 reads out the data from the non-real-time file area ofthe disc and outputs it. The read data is supplied to the systemcontroller 7 through the data separating circuit 6 and is once storedinto a buffer memory (not shown) in the system controller 7. The systemcontroller 7 sequentially writes the (14) background video imageinformation, (15) control device information, and (16) DSP modeinformation mentioned above in the intrachapter common information withrespect to the music piece number which were read out from the datasupplied into the RAM 13 in the outside (step S229). A check is made tosee if the data reading operation by the player section 4 has beenfinished or not (step S230). In the embodiment, the background videoimage information, control device information, and DSP mode informationare the control set information of the external apparatus.

Until the end of the reading operation of the data is known, the datasupplied by the execution in step S229 is written into the RAM 13. Afterthe reading of the data has been finished, the control deviceinformation is read out from the RAM 13 (step S231) and supplied to eachof the external apparatuses (step S232). As shown in FIG. 11, in thecontrol device information, one bit corresponds to one externalapparatus and, when the value of the bit is equal to "1", this meansthat the external apparatus corresponding to such a bit can becontrolled. In the apparatus, since the illuminating apparatus 25,background video image apparatus 26, and audio processing apparatus 27are provided as external apparatuses, the 1-bit data corresponding tothose external apparatuses is supplied. When the supplied 1-bit data isequal to "1", therefore, its external apparatus is set into the setstate in which the external apparatus can be controlled in accordancewith the real-time data.

After step S232 has been executed, the system controller 7 reads out thebackground video image information and DSP mode information from the RAM13 (step S233) and supplies the background video image information tothe background video image apparatus 26 and also supplies the DSP modeinformation to the audio processing apparatus 27 (step S234). Thebackground video image apparatus 26 is set into an operating state inaccordance with the supplied background video image information. Thatis, one of the video images which are stored in the recording mediumplaying apparatus, which is selected according to image, situation,location, season, and the like of the music piece, or the photographingvideo image of a singer or the like is designated, and it is set thatthe designated background video image signal is outputted. In the audioprocessing apparatus 27, a processing program of the DSP and the datasuch as reverberation time, multiplication coefficients, and the likefor the sound field control are set in accordance with the DSP modeinformation. For instance, the above data is set to a value suitable forthe selected music piece.

Since the external apparatuses 25 to 27 are set into an operative modein accordance with the real-time data by the above operation, the systemcontroller 7 instructs the disc playing from the track of the musicpiece number which has been read out (step S235). Therefore, the playersection 4 starts to play the music piece designated by the music pieceselection number.

Whether there is a recording reservation or not is judged from therecording flag which has been read out (step S236). When the recordingflag is set to "1", a recording start command is generated to therecording apparatus 16 (step S237). Since the audio signal including thesinging sound is supplied from the amplifier 18 to the recordingapparatus 16, the recording to the compact disc is executed in responseto the recording start command.

After step S237 has been executed, the system controller 7 reads out therecording music piece information corresponding to the music pieceselection number which has been read out in step S222 from the RAM 13(step S238). The recording music piece information is at least the musictitle name, songwriter name, and composer name. Information such assinger, recording date and time, Location, and the like can be alsoadded. After the recording music piece information has been read out, itis supplied to the printer 17 (step S239). The printer 17 prints therecording music piece information to a label which is designed so as tobe adhered to the compact disc. With such a construction, by adheringthe label to the label surface of the recorded compact disc, the recordregarding the recorded music pieces is derived.

Practically speaking, after step S239 has been executed, the playingsound of the designated music piece is outputted by the operation delayof the player section 4. It is, however, also possible to instruct theplaying of the disc from the track of the read-out music piece numberafter the operations in steps S236 to S239 were executed.

In the disc playing, the data outputted from the player section 4 isseparated by the data separating circuit 6 and the video image signaland audio signal reproduced from the compressed image data andcompressed audio data are supplied to the display 22 and speaker 19. Thereal-time data separated by the data separating circuit 6 is supplied tothe illuminating apparatus 25, background video image apparatus 26, andaudio processing apparatus 27. The illuminating apparatus 25, therefore,has already been set into the state in which it can be controlled inaccordance with the real-time data in the case where the 1-bit datasupplied in the control device information is equal to "1" uponoperation in step S232, so that the illuminance and color of theillumination change in accordance with the real-time data. The operatingstate of the background video image apparatus 26 has been set inaccordance with the background video image information by the operationin step S234 in the case where the 1-bit data supplied in the controldevice information is equal to "1" upon operation in step S232. Thecontents and color of the background video image, therefore, change inaccordance with the real-time data. The sound field control state of theaudio processing apparatus 27 has also been set in accordance with theDSP mode information by the operation in step S234 in the case where the1-bit data supplied in the control device information is equal to "1"upon operation in step S232. For example, therefore, the reverberationtime and sound volume of the singing sound further change in accordancewith the real-time data.

In the case where the 1-bit data supplied in the control deviceinformation is equal to "0", the illuminating apparatus 25, backgroundvideo image apparatus 26, and audio processing apparatus 27 operate inaccordance with their own programs. In this case, the illuminatingapparatus 25 and the like can also operate in accordance with thereproduced karaoke playing sound. It is also possible that thebackground video image apparatus 26 and audio processing apparatus 27are not controlled in accordance with the real-time data even in thecase where the supplied 1-bit data is equal to "1".

After step S239 has been executed, the system controller 7 judgeswhether the playing of the selected music piece has been finished or not(step S240) by checking the time information in the control data that issupplied from the data separating circuit 6 by the playing of the disc.After completion of the playing of the selected music piece, a playingstop command is generated to the player section 4 (step S241). A discreturn command is generated to the disc conveying section 3 (step S242).The player section 4, accordingly, stops the disc playing operation.After the rotation of the turntable has been stopped, the disc conveyingsection 3 conveys the disc on the turntable to a enclosing positionwhere the disc was in the disc enclosing section 2 and encloses therein.After the disc return command has been generated, the system controller7 progresses the music piece order in the selection music piece listtable by one (step S243) and discriminates whether the music pieceselection number has been recorded at the first order in the selectionmusic piece list table or not (step S244). If the music piece selectionnumber has been recorded, the processing routine is returned to stepS222 and the above operations are repeated. On the other hand, when themusic piece selection number is not recorded, the playing operation isfinished.

In the above embodiment, the player section 4 reads out the data fromthe non-real-time file area of the disc and outputs the data inaccordance with the read command of the data in step S228. Theinvention, however, is not limited to such a construction. For instance,since the control information area is provided in the head portion ofthe file of each chapter unit in each real-time file area as shown inFIG. 26, it is also possible to record the intrachapter commoninformation of only the music pieces of the chapter and to read out thebackground video image information, control device information, and DSPmode information from the control information area.

In the present invention, the recording medium on which at least thekaraoke playing sounds of a plurality of music pieces have been recordedis not limited to the disc but any other recording medium such as a tapeor the like can be also obviously used.

It is needless to say that the recording medium, on which at leastkaraoke playing sounds for a plurality of music pieces are recorded, isnot limited to a recording disk, and other recording medium such as amagnetic tape may be used in the apparatus according to the presentinvention.

Although the invention has been described with respect to the case ofreproducing a medium on which the information which has been imagecompressed by an MPEG or the like is recorded, further, the invention isnot limited to such a case. A similar effect can be also obtained solong as a medium to which control information to control the externalapparatuses can be added.

In the karaoke reproducing apparatus according to the third feature ofthe invention as mentioned above, when one of a plurality of musicpieces is selected by the operation, the control set information of theselected music piece is read out from the recording medium and theexternal apparatus is set into the set state corresponding to thecontrol set information and, after that, the playing of the selectedmusic piece is started. The external apparatus, therefore, can be setinto the operative state until the start of the karaoke playing of theselected music piece even if a memory of a large capacity to store thecontrol set information of the external apparatus is not provided in theapparatus. The costs of the apparatus can be reduced. There is also anadvantage such that even if a new karaoke music piece is added, there isno need to perform a troublesome operation to previously store thecontrol set information into the memory.

The fourth embodiment of the invention will now be described. In theembodiment, a karaoke reproducing apparatus has a construction shown inFIG. 27 and the portions 1 to 26 are the same as the correspondingportions in the construction shown in FIG. 22 and their descriptions areomitted. In FIG. 27, external apparatus control interfaces 30 to 32 eachhaving the function to convert the real-time data are provided betweenthe data separating circuit 6 and the illuminating apparatus 25,background video image apparatus 26, and audio processing apparatus 27.For instance, each of the interfaces 30 to 32 is constructed by amicrocomputer and, further, has an internal memory (not shown) in whicha part of a conversion table has previously been written. The conversiontable differs in accordance with the external apparatus which isconnected.

In the disc playing in the embodiment, the data outputted from theplayer section 4 is separated by the data separating circuit 6. Thevideo image signal and the audio signal which were reproduced from thecompressed image data and the compressed audio data are supplied to thedisplay 22 and the speaker 19. The real-time data separated by the dataseparating circuit 6 is supplied to the external apparatus controlinterfaces 30 to 32. Each of the interfaces 30 to 32 repetitivelyexecute the same operation as follows.

As shown in FIG. 28, a check is first made to see if the real-time dataof a predetermined unit has been received or not (step S251). When thereal-time data of a predetermined unit is received, it is written intothe internal memory (step S252). The real-time data is converted byusing the above conversion table (step S253). The converted real-timedata is supplied to the external apparatus (step S254). That is, in thecase of the interface 30, the real-time data is supplied to theilluminating apparatus 25. In the case of the interface 31, thereal-time data is supplied to the background video image apparatus 26.In the case of the interface 32, the real-time data is supplied to theaudio processing apparatus 27. Since the conversion tables in theinterfaces 30 to 32 differ, the real-time data which is supplied to theexternal apparatuses 25 to 27 have different contents.

In the case where the supplied 1-bit data in the control deviceinformation is equal to "1" upon operation in step S232, since theilluminating apparatus 25 has already been set into the set state inwhich it can be controlled in accordance with the real-time data, theilluminance and color of the illumination change in accordance with thereal-time data supplied from the interface 30. In the case where thesupplied 1-bit data in the control device information is equal to "1"upon operation in step S232, since the operating state of the backgroundvideo image apparatus 26 has been set in accordance with the backgroundvideo image information by the operation in step S234, the contents andcolor of the background video image change in accordance with thereal-time data supplied from the interface 31. In the case where thesupplied 1-bit data in the control device information is equal to "1"upon operation in step S232, since the sound field control state of theaudio processing apparatus 27 has also been set in accordance with theDSP mode information by the operation in step S234, for example, thereverberation time and sound volume of the singing sound further changein accordance with the real-time data supplied from the interface 32.

In the case where the supplied 1-bit data in the control deviceinformation is equal to "0", each of the illuminating apparatus 25,background video image apparatus 26, and audio processing apparatus 27operates in accordance with its own program. In this case, theilluminating apparatus 25 and the like can also operate in accordancewith the reproduced karaoke playing sound.

In the above embodiment, although each of the external apparatus controlinterfaces 30 to 32 merely converts the real-time data in accordancewith the conversion table, it is also possible to construct in thefollowing manner. That is, the information such as genre of music piece,tempo, season, theme of music piece, situation, district, and the likein the intrachapter common information which has been read out from thenon-real-time file area or from the control information area of theabove real-time file area is supplied to the external apparatus controlinterfaces 30 to 32 by the system controller 7, and the interfaces 30 to32 convert the real-time data on the basis of the conversion table andthe information from the system controller 7.

With respect to the selected music piece, for example, it is now assumedthat the genre of music piece is set to ENKA (popular ba lad), the tempois set to slow, the season is set to winter, the theme of music piece isset to love, the situation is set to pub restaurant, and the district isset to northeast. In this case, the external apparatus control interface30 first controls in a manner such that a mirror ball (not shown) of theilluminating apparatus 25 is slowly rotated, the illumination is set tobe dark as a whole, and a background effect machine is set to snow.After that, when the playing of the music piece is started, theilluminating apparatus 25 operates in accordance with the setconditions. When a climax portion of the music piece comes after that,the illumination is set to be light in accordance with the real-timedata and the rotational speed of the mirror ball is raised.

In the invention, the recording medium on which at least the karaokeplaying sounds of a plurality of music pieces have been recorded is notlimited to the disc but any other recording medium such as a tape or thelike can be also obviously used.

Although the present invention has been described with respect to thecase of reproducing the medium on which the information which had beenimage compressed by the MPEG or the like has been recorded, theinvention is not limited to such a case. A similar effect, further, canbe also obtained so long as a medium to which control information tocontrol the external apparatus can be added is used.

As mentioned above, in the karaoke reproducing apparatus according tothe fourth feature of the invention, when one of a plurality of musicpieces is selected by the operation, the recording medium is played withregard to the selected music piece, the real-time data is obtainedsimultaneously with the reproduction of the karaoke playing sound, andthe real-time data is converted so as to be adapted to the externalapparatus and is supplied to the external apparatus. An arbitraryexternal apparatus, therefore, can be controlled by one real-time datawhich changes in accordance with the karaoke playing sound. By changingthe conversion pattern of the data conversion, the control contents ofthe external apparatus can be freely changed.

The fifth embodiment of the invention will now be described.

FIG. 29 shows a construction of a karaoke reproducing apparatus to whicha recording information reproducing apparatus according to the inventionhas been applied.

In the diagram, a plurality of recording discs 51a, a disc conveyingsection 51b, and a player section 51c are provided in a disc player 51of the automatic changer type. In the disc playing by such a disc player51, one of the plurality of recording discs 51a is conveyed onto aturntable (not shown) of the player section 51c by the conveying section51b. The player section 51c plays the recording disc on the turntableand obtains the read signal and supplies to a data separating circuit52. Such an automatic changer type disc player 51 executes the operationas mentioned above in accordance with various kinds of player controlcommands which are supplied through a CPU bus 53. The player 51 sends aplayer state information signal indicative of the operating state of theplayer to the CPU bus 53.

In addition to the audio signal and video image signal corresponding tothe karaoke music pieces, the image data signal in which the characterinformation to form the song words has been converted into image datahas been recorded on each of the discs 51a.

FIG. 30 is a diagram showing a signal format of the image data signal.

As shown in the diagram, the image data signal is constructed by aheader section and a character data section. Basic character signals inwhich the character of one character or one figure has been convertedinto the image data by the number of dots of the minimum unit arerecorded in the character data section by the number as many as aplurality of characters or figures.

FIGS. 31 and 32 show examples of the display in the case where numerals"2" and "4" as character information were converted into the image databy setting the number of dots of the minimum unit into 20 (=4×5).

In the diagram, for example, assuming that the blank dot is set to "0"and the dot in the hatched portion is set to "1", the numerals "2" and"4" can be expressed as follows.

"2"="0110, 1001, 0010, 0100, 1111"

"4"="0010, 0110, 1010, 1111, 0010"

That is, in this case, the digital signal of 20 bits is recorded as abasic character signal into the character data section. A headeridentification (ID) signal indicative of the head position of such animage data signal and enlargement ratio designation signals (Xdirection, Y direction) to designate the size of character on thedisplay are recorded in the header portion in FIG. 2. The enlargement:ratio designation signals designate enlargement ratios to enlarge in theX and Y directions, respectively, by using the size of image display inthe basic character signal as shown in FIG. 31 as a reference.

The data separating circuit 52 in FIG. 29 separates and extracts anaudio signal (a), a video image signal (b), and an image data signal (c)as mentioned above from the read signal supplied from the disc player51, respectively. In this instance, the audio signal (a) is supplied toan acoustic processing circuit 54. The video image signal (b) issupplied to an image synthesizing circuit 55. The image data signal (c)is supplied to an enlargement operating circuit 56 and is also sent tothe CPU bus 53. The acoustic processing circuit 54 supplies to a speaker58 the signal in which a synthetic signal obtained by synthesizing theaudio signal supplied from the data separating circuit 52 and the audiosignal supplied from a microphone 57 has been amplified to a desiredlevel.

The enlargement operating circuit 56 executes an enlargement operationto each basic character signal in the image data signal (c) at theenlargement ratios based on an X-direction enlargement ratio signal anda Y-direction enlargement ratio signal which are supplied through theCPU bus 53, thereby obtaining an enlargement character signal (d) andsupplying to a video memory 59. In this instance, the enlargementoperating circuit 56 sends an enlargement operation end signal to theCPU bus 53 each time the enlargement operating process for one basiccharacter signal is finished.

The video memory 59 stores the enlargement character signal (d) inaccordance with a memory write signal which is supplied through the CPUbus 53. The contents stored, namely, the enlargement character signals(d) are sequentially read out from the video memory 59 in accordancewith a memory read signal which is supplied through the CPU bus 53 andare supplied to the image synthesizing circuit 55. The imagesynthesizing circuit 55 synthesizes the enlargement character signal (d)supplied from the video memory 59 to the video image signal (b) suppliedfrom the data separating circuit 52 and supplies the synthetic videoimage signal to a display 60. A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 61executes various kinds of operation controls of the karaoke apparatuswith the construction as mentioned above through the CPU (bus) 53 inaccordance with the operating procedure stored in an ROM (Read OnlyMemory) 62.

The operation of the recording information reproducing apparatusaccording to the invention applied to such a karaoke apparatus will nowbe described.

FIG. 33 shows a subroutine flow for the character enlargement controlwhich is executed by the recording information reproducing apparatusaccording to the invention.

First, the CPU 61 discriminates whether the header ID signal exists onthe CPU bus 53 or not (step S301). In step S301, when it is judged thatthe header ID signal exists, the CPU 61 reads the enlargement ratiodesignation signals (X direction and Y direction) which are transmittedsubsequent to the header ID signal and sends them to the enlargementoperating circuit 56 as X-direction enlargement ratio signal andY-direction enlargement ratio signal (step S302). By the control in stepS302, the enlargement operating circuit 56 fetches the X-direction andY-direction enlargement ratio signals and fixes the operating mode ofthe enlargement operating circuit 56 itself to an enlargement operatingmode such as to execute the enlargement operating process according tothe enlargement ratios.

After completion of step S302 or in the case where it is judged that theheader ID signal doesn't exist in step S301, the CPU 61 discriminateswhether an enlargement operation end signal exists on the CPU bus 53 ornot (step S303). When it is judged in step S303 that the enlargementoperation end signal doesn't exist, the CPU 61 returns to the operationcontrol in step S301 and repetitively executes the control as mentionedabove. In step S303, when it is judged that the enlargement operationend signal exists, the CPU 61 sends a memory write signal to the videomemory 59 (step S304). By the control in step S304, the video memory 59stores the enlargement character signals corresponding to one characterwhich were subjected to the enlarging process. The CPU 61 subsequentlyreads a player state information signal existing on the CPU bus 53 andchecks whether the disc player 51 has already finished the playingoperation or not (step S305). When it is determined in step S305 thatthe playing operation is not finished, the CPU 61 returns to theoperation control in step S301 and repetitively executes the control asmentioned above. When it is judged in step S305 that the playingoperation has been finished, the CPU 61 exits the subroutine flow ofsuch a character enlargement control and executes the main control.

The enlarging operation of the character by such a character enlargementcontrol will now be described.

The case where an image data signal as shown in FIG. 34 has beenrecorded on the recording disc 51a will be first considered.

In such an image data signal, the digital signal of 20 bits =(4 bits inthe X direction)×(5 bits in the Y direction)! obtained by converting anumeral "2" shown in FIG. 31 into the image data has been recorded as abasic character signal. Designation signals to designate that the signalis enlarged two times in the X direction and is also enlarged one timein the Y direction when displaying such a signal to the display 60 havebeen recorded in the header portion. The disc player 51 and the dataseparating circuit 52 read and reproduce such an image data signal asshown in FIG. 34 from the recording disc 51a and send to the CPU bus 53as an image data signal (c). In this instance, the CPU 61 detects theheader ID signal in the image data signal (c) sent onto the CPU bus 53and reads the enlargement ratio designation signals (X direction and Ydirection) which are sent subsequent to the header ID signal by thecontrol in steps S301 and S302. In this instance, since the enlargementratio designation signals designate that the signal is enlarged twotimes in the X direction and is also enlarged one time in the Ydirection as shown in FIG. 34, the CPU 61 transmits the X-directionenlargement ratio signal indicative of the enlargement of two times andthe Y-direction enlargement ratio signal indicative of one time to theenlargement operating circuit 56.

The enlargement operating circuit 56 fixes its arithmetic calculatingoperation into the enlargement operating mode to execute the enlargementof two times in the X direction and the enlargement of one time in the Ydirection. Subsequently, the enlargement operating circuit 56 executesthe enlargement operation of the basic character signal comprising 20bits in the image data signal (c) as shown in FIG. 34 in the enlargementoperating mode. In this instance, since the signal is enlarged two timesin the X direction and is enlarged one time in the Y direction, theenlargement operating circuit 56 generates the enlargement charactersignal (d) of 40 bits =(8 bits in the X direction)×(5 bits in the Ydirection)!. Such an enlargement character signal (d) is supplied to thedisplay 60 through the video memory 59 and the image synthesizingcircuit 55 and is displayed as shown in FIG. 37.

The case where an image data signal as shown in FIG. 35 has beenrecorded on the recording disc 51a will now be considered.

In such an image data signal, the digital signal of 20 bits =(4 bits inthe X direction)×(5 bits in the Y direction)! obtained by converting anumeral "2" shown in FIG. 31 into the image data has been recorded as abasic character signal. Further, designation signals to designate thatthe signal is enlarged one time in the X direction and is enlarged twotimes in the Y direction when displaying such a signal by the display 60have been recorded in the header section. The disc player 51 and dataseparating circuit 52 read and reproduce the image data signal as shownin FIG. 35 from the recording disc 51a and transmit them to the CPU bus53 as an image data signal (c). In this instance, the CPU 61 detects theheader ID signal in the image data signal (c) sent onto the CPU bus 53and reads the enlargement ratio designation signals (X direction and Ydirection) which are sent subsequent to the header ID signal by thecontrol in steps S301 and S302. In this instance, since the enlargementratio designation signals designate that the enlargement of one time inthe X direction and the enlargement of two times in the Y direction asshown in FIG. 35, the CPU 61 sends the X-direction enlargement ratiosignal indicative of the enlargement of one time and the Y-directionenlargement ratio signal indicative of the enlargement of two times tothe enlargement operating circuit 56, respectively.

The enlargement operating circuit 56 fixes its arithmetic calculatingoperation into an enlargement operating mode to enlarge the signal onetime in the X direction and to enlarge the signal two times in the Ydirection. The enlargement operating circuit 56 subsequently executes anenlarging operation of the basic character signal comprising 20 bits inthe image data signal (c) as shown in FIG. 35 in the enlargementoperating mode. In this instance, since the signal is enlarged one timein the X direction and is enlarged two times in the Y direction, theenlargement operating circuit 56 generates the enlargement charactersignal (d) of 40 bits =(4 bits in the X direction)×(10 bits in the Ydirection)!. Such an enlargement character signal (d) is supplied to thedisplay 60 through the video memory 59 and the image synthesizingcircuit 55 and is displayed as shown in FIG. 38. That is, even when thesize of character to be displayed on the display corresponds to 40 bitsof the character signal as shown in FIGS. 37 and 38, it is sufficient toset a data amount of the character signal which is recorded onto therecording disc into 20 bits.

The case where an image data signal as shown in FIG. 36 has beenrecorded on the recording disc 51a will now be considered.

In such an image data signal, the digital signal of 20 bits =(4 bits inthe X direction)×(5 bits in the Y direction)! derived by converting anumeral "2" shown in FIG. 31 into the image data has been recorded as abasic character signal. Further, designation signals to designate thatthe signal is enlarged two times in the X direction and is enlarged twotimes in the Y direction when displaying such a signal onto the display60 have been recorded in the header section. The disc player 51 and thedata separating circuit 52 read and reproduce the image data signal asshown in FIG. 36 from the recording disc 51a and transmit it onto theCPU bus 53 as an image data signal (c). In this instance, by the controlin steps S301 and S302,the CPU 61 detects the header ID signal in theimage data signal (c) sent onto the CPU bus 53 and reads the enlargementratio designation signals (X direction and Y direction) which aretransmitted subsequent to the header ID signal. In this instance, sincethe enlargement ratio designation signals designate the enlargement oftwo times in the X direction and the enlargement of two times in the Ydirection as shown in FIG. 36, the CPU 61 respectively transmits theX-direction enlargement ratio signal indicative of the enlargement oftwo times and the Y-direction enlargement ratio signal indicative of theenlargement of two times to the enlargement operating circuit 56.

The enlargement operating circuit 56 fixes its arithmetic calculatingoperation into an enlargement operating mode to perform the enlargementof two times in the X direction and the enlargement of two times in theY direction. Subsequently, the enlargement operating circuit 56 executesthe enlarging operation of the basic character signal comprising 20 bitsin the image data signal (c) as shown in FIG. 36 in the enlargementoperating mode. In this instance, since the signal is enlarged two timesin the X direction and is enlarged two times in the Y direction, theenlargement operating circuit 56 generates the enlargement charactersignal (d) of 80 bits =(8 bits in the X direction)×(10 bits in the Ydirection)!. The enlargement character signal (d) is supplied to thedisplay 60 through the video memory 59 and the image synthesizingcircuit 55 and is displayed as shown in FIG. 39. That is, even when thesize of character to be displayed on the display corresponds to 80 bitsof the character signal as shown in FIG. 39, it is sufficient to use thedata amount of 20 bits for the character signal which is recorded ontothe recording disc.

Although the above embodiment has been described with respect to thecase where the recording information reproducing apparatus according tothe invention is applied to the karaoke apparatus, the invention is notlimited to such a karaoke apparatus. In brief, the invention can be alsoapplied to any other apparatus such that recording information isreproduced from a recording medium on which character and figureinformation has been converted into image data and has been recorded andsuch character and figure information is displayed.

According to the fifth feature of the invention as mentioned above, thecharacter signal and enlargement ratio designation signals arerespectively reproduced from the recording disc on which the charactersignal in which the character and figure information or the like hasbeen converted into the image data has been recorded and the enlargementratio designation signals to designate the enlargement ratios on thedisplay based on such a character signal have also been recorded in thehead portion. The display is executed on the basis of the enlargementcharacter signal obtained by executing the enlarging operation to thecharacter signal at the enlargement ratios indicated by the enlargementratio designation signals.

According to the fifth feature of the invention, therefore, even in thecase where the size of character to be displayed on the display islarge, it is sufficient that the data amount of character signal whichis recorded on the recording disc is set to the minimum data amountenough to form one character. It is, therefore, preferable because thedata amount of the character and figure information which is recorded onthe recording disc can be reduced.

What is claimed is:
 1. A recording medium reproducing apparatus forreproducing a recording medium on which at least sound data of aplurality of music pieces have been recorded, said apparatuscomprising:means for generating a selection music piece command toselect at least one particular music piece of said plurality of musicpieces; playing means for playing said recording medium with respect tosaid at least one particular music piece according to said selectionmusic piece command; a memory for storing music title name informationof at least one of said music pieces recorded on said recording medium;means for reading said music title name information corresponding tosaid selection music piece command from said memory when said selectionmusic piece command is generated; and display means for displaying saidmusic title name information read from said memory, wherein said meansfor generating a selection music piece command comprises:memory meansfor storing music piece classification information for said music piecesrecorded on said recording medium, said music piece classificationinformation representing at least one characteristic of said pluralityof music pieces and comprising a plurality of different items; selectionmeans for selecting at least one item from among said items of saidmusic piece classification information in accordance with a selectionoperation and for selecting at least one selected music piece whichcorresponds to said at least one item; and command generating means forgenerating said selection music piece command to select said at leastone particular music piece from said at least one selected music piece.2. A recording medium reproducing apparatus as claimed in claim 1,wherein said music title name information has been recorded on saidrecording medium, and wherein said music title name information is readfrom said recording medium and stored in said memory.
 3. A karaokereproducing apparatus for reproducing a recording medium on which atleast karaoke playing sounds of a plurality of music pieces have beenrecorded, said apparatus comprising:means for generating a selectionmusic piece command to select at least one particular music piece ofsaid plurality of music pieces; playing means for playing said recordingmedium with respect to said at least one particular music pieceaccording to said selection music piece command; a memory for storingmusic title name information of at least one of said music piecesrecorded on said recording medium; means for reading said music titlename information corresponding to said selection music piece commandfrom said memory when said selection music piece command is generated;and display means for displaying said music title name information readfrom said memory, wherein said means for generating a selection musicpiece command comprises:memory means for storing music piececlassification information for said music pieces recorded on saidrecording medium, said music piece classification informationrepresenting at least one characteristic of said plurality of musicpieces and comprising a plurality of different items; selection meansfor selecting at least one item from among said items of said musicpiece classification information in accordance with a selectionoperation and for selecting at least one selected music piece whichcorresponds to said at least one item; and command generating means forgenerating said selection music piece command to select said at leastone particular music piece from said at least one selected music piece.4. An apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said music title nameinformation, which has been recorded on said recording medium, ispreviously read from the recording medium and recorded into said memorybefore said selection music piece command is generated.
 5. A recordingmedium for playing in a recording medium reproducing apparatus whichcomprises means for generating a selection music piece command to selectone music piece of a plurality of music pieces in accordance with aselection operation and playing means for playing said one music pieceaccording to said selection music piece command, said recording mediumcomprising:at least an information area in which information relating tomusic pieces are recorded on said recording medium, said informationrelating to music pieces including music title name information andmusic classification information; and at least a data area in which atleast sound data of said music pieces recorded on said recording mediumis recorded, wherein said information area and said data area togetherconstitute an information recording area of said recording medium,wherein said music title name information and said music classificationinformation constitute search criteria which are evaluated during saidselection operation to enable said recording medium reproducingapparatus to select said one music piece of said plurality of musicpieces.
 6. A recording medium as claimed in claim 5, wherein said musicclassification information comprises theme information for said musicpieces which corresponds to the themes of said music pieces.
 7. Arecording medium as claimed in claim 5, wherein said musicclassification information comprises situation information for saidmusic pieces which corresponds to situations of said music pieces.
 8. Arecording medium as claimed in claim 5, wherein said musicclassification information comprises genre information for said musicpieces which corresponds to genres of said music pieces.
 9. A recordingmedium as claimed in claim 5, wherein said music classificationinformation comprises control information for said music pieces whichindicates an external apparatus which can be controlled by control datarecorded on said recording medium.
 10. A recording medium reproducingapparatus for reproducing a recording medium on which at least sounddata of a plurality of music pieces have been recorded, wherein saidapparatus comprises:memory means for storing music piece classificationinformation for said music pieces recorded on said recording medium,wherein said music piece classification information represents at leastone characteristic of said plurality of music pieces and comprises aplurality of different items; selection means for selecting at least oneitem of said items of said music piece classification information inaccordance with a selection operation and for selecting at least oneselected music piece which corresponds to said at least one item; andsearching means for searching said memory means for at least oneparticular music piece from said at least one selected music piece. 11.An apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said music piececlassification information of said music pieces is recorded on saidrecording medium, andwherein the music piece classification informationof said music pieces is previously read from said recording medium andstored in said memory means before said selection operation isperformed.
 12. A recording medium reproducing apparatus as claimed inclaim 10, wherein said music piece classification information isrecorded on said recording medium in the form of code data.
 13. Anapparatus according to claim 10, further comprising display means fordisplaying a music title name of said at least one particular musicpiece.
 14. An apparatus according to claim 10, further comprisingplaying means for reproducing said at least one particular music piece.15. A recording medium reproducing apparatus for reproducing a recordingmedium on which at least sound data of a plurality of music pieces havebeen recorded, wherein said apparatus comprises:memory means for storingmusic piece classification information for said music pieces recorded onsaid recording medium, wherein said music piece classificationinformation represents at least one characteristic of said plurality ofmusic pieces and comprises a plurality of different items; selectionmeans for generating an item content selection command to select atleast one item of said items of said music piece classificationinformation in accordance with a selection operation; and searchingmeans for searching said memory means for at least one particular musicpiece corresponding to said at least one item selected by said itemcontent selection command, wherein said selection means generates saiditem content selection command based on a plurality of selectionoperations, wherein said plurality of selection operations respectivelyselect at least two items among said different items in said music piececlassification information.
 16. A recording medium reproducing apparatusfor reproducing a recording medium on which at least sound data of aplurality of music pieces have been recorded, wherein said apparatuscomprises:memory means for storing music piece classificationinformation for said music pieces recorded on said recording medium,wherein said music piece classification information represents at leastone characteristic of said plurality of music pieces and comprises aplurality of different items; selection means for generating an itemcontent selection command to select at least one item of said items ofsaid music piece classification information in accordance with aselection operation; and searching means for searching said memory meansfor at least one particular music piece corresponding to said at leastone item selected by said item content selection command, wherein saidselection means generates said item content selection command based on aselection item which represents a classification of said music piecesthat is different from said items contained in the music piececlassification information.
 17. An apparatus according to claim 16,wherein said selection means makes a determination regarding which ofsaid items contained in said music piece classification informationcorrespond to said selection item and generates said item contentselection command based on said determination.
 18. A recording mediumreproducing apparatus which can generate data to control an externalapparatus simultaneously with the reproduction of a sound, comprising:arecording medium on which at least sound data of a plurality of musicpieces, control set information of said external apparatus, andreal-time data for said plurality of music pieces have been recorded;means for generating a selection music piece command to indicate onemusic piece of said plurality of music pieces in accordance with aselection operation; playing means for playing said recording mediumwith respect to said one music piece according to said selection musicpiece command; and means for reading said control set informationaccording to said selection music piece command before said playingmeans begins playing said recording medium and for setting the externalapparatus into a set state corresponding to said control set informationread by said means for reading.
 19. An apparatus according to claim 18,wherein said control set information is control device informationindicative of an ability of said external apparatus to be controlled bysaid real-time data.
 20. An apparatus according to claim 18, whereinsaid external apparatus is a background video image apparatus forgenerating a background signal indicative of a background video image ofa character image which is displayed on a display,wherein said controlset information is background video image information indicative of akind of said background signal to be generated by said background videoimage apparatus, and wherein said kind of said background signalrepresents a type of background video image to be displayed on saiddisplay.
 21. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein said externalapparatus is a DSP for processing audio data and said control setinformation is DSP mode information used to set an operating mode ofsaid DSP.
 22. A recording medium reproducing apparatus which can controlan external apparatus simultaneously with the reproduction of a sound,comprising:a recording medium on which at least sound data of aplurality of music pieces, portions of video data, and portions ofreal-time data are recorded, wherein said portions of real-time datacorrespond to said plurality of music pieces such that said portions ofreal-time data change when one music piece of said plurality of musicpieces is played and wherein said portions of video data correspond tosaid plurality of music pieces; means for generating a selection musicpiece command to indicate a selected music piece of said plurality ofmusic pieces in accordance with a selection operation; playing means forplaying said recording medium with respect to said selected music pieceaccording to said selection music piece command and for outputting oneportion of said portions of real-time data simultaneously with thereproduction of said sound data; means for outputting at least one ofsaid portions of video data to a display when said playing means playssaid recording medium; and converting means for converting said oneportion of real-time data output from said playing means into converteddata and for supplying said converted data to said external apparatus asa control signal.
 23. An apparatus according to claim 22, whereincontrol information has been recorded in a head portion of saidrecording medium for each of said plurality of music pieces,wherein saidplaying means reads the control information from said recording mediumbefore the reproduction of the sound data according to said selectionmusic piece command, and wherein said converting means converts theportion of real-time data according to the control information read fromsaid recording medium.
 24. A recording medium for playing in a recordingmedium reproducing apparatus which comprises means for generating aselection music piece command to select one music piece of a pluralityof music pieces in accordance with a selection operation and playingmeans for playing said one music piece according to said selection musicpiece command, said recording medium comprising:at least an informationarea in which information relating to music pieces are recorded on saidrecording medium, said information relating to music pieces includingmusic classification information; and at least a data area in which atleast sound data of said music pieces recorded on said recording mediumis recorded, wherein said information area and said data area togetherconstitute an information recording area of said recording medium,wherein said music classification information constitutes a searchcriteria which is evaluated during said selection operation to enablesaid recording medium reproducing apparatus to select said one musicpiece of said plurality of music pieces.
 25. A recording medium asclaimed in claim 24, wherein said music classification informationcomprises theme information for said music pieces which corresponds tothe themes of said music pieces.
 26. A recording medium as claimed inclaim 24, wherein said music classification information comprisessituation information for said music pieces which corresponds tosituations of said music pieces.
 27. A recording medium as claimed inclaim 24, wherein said music classification information comprises genreinformation for said music pieces which corresponds to genres of saidmusic pieces.
 28. A recording medium as claimed in claim 24, whereinsaid music classification information comprises control information forsaid music pieces which indicates various external apparatuses which canbe controlled by control data recorded on said recording medium.
 29. Arecording medium for playing in a recording medium reproducing apparatuswhich comprises means for generating a selection music piece command toselect one music piece of a plurality of music pieces in accordance witha selection operation and playing means for playing said one music pieceaccording to said selection music piece command, said recording mediumcomprising:at least an information area in which information relating tomusic pieces are recorded on said recording medium, said informationincluding control information for controlling an external apparatus andportions of video information, wherein said portions of video datacorrespond to said music pieces; and at least a data area in which atleast sound data of said music pieces recorded on said recording mediumis recorded, wherein said information area and said data area togetherconstitute an information recording area of said recording medium.
 30. Arecording medium according to claim 29, wherein said information in saidinformation area further includes music title name information for saidmusic pieces.
 31. A recording medium as claimed in claim 29, whereinsaid external apparatus comprises an illuminating apparatus forilluminating at least one light, andwherein said illuminating apparatusis different from a display on which words relating to said one musicpiece are displayed when said one music piece is played by said playingmeans.
 32. A recording medium as claimed in claim 29, wherein saidexternal apparatus is a DSP for processing audio data corresponding tosaid one music piece when said one music piece is played by said playingmeans.